AuthorTopic: No drums in the mix (Read 4539 times)

A hint of snare was all that came thru the mains. Sometimes when things were quiet a bit of kick made it through but that was it. You also didn't hear lead guitar, fiddle or keyboard unless they were playing a solo.

What was left to hear? Just vocals?

Sometimes all you hear is a mush of sound and you can't quite work out what is making it!

There was a time when I let it suck most of the fun of live music out of the events I was attending, then I decided that wasn't the result I wanted.

When I'm mixing, I want to enjoy the music. It took me a while to train myself to listen to the music as a whole rather than a collection of individual elements. It's the same if I'm playing in a band. It's too easy to concentrate on what you are doing but far better to listen to everything.

It might sound stupid, but I have found that when playing, I can conciously switch from listening to myself to listening to the whole sound.

Sometimes all you hear is a mush of sound and you can't quite work out what is making it!

When I'm mixing, I want to enjoy the music. It took me a while to train myself to listen to the music as a whole rather than a collection of individual elements. It's the same if I'm playing in a band. It's too easy to concentrate on what you are doing but far better to listen to everything.

It might sound stupid, but I have found that when playing, I can conciously switch from listening to myself to listening to the whole sound.

Steve.

Vocals and acoustic guitar was pretty much it most of the time. I heard something similar with an Eagles tribute band recently. It's like they're so intent on wowing the crowd with the vocal presentation they forget there's a whole band playing.

Sometimes all you hear is a mush of sound and you can't quite work out what is making it!

When I'm mixing, I want to enjoy the music. It took me a while to train myself to listen to the music as a whole rather than a collection of individual elements. It's the same if I'm playing in a band. It's too easy to concentrate on what you are doing but far better to listen to everything.

It might sound stupid, but I have found that when playing, I can conciously switch from listening to myself to listening to the whole sound.

Steve.

Steve you hit on one of my pieces of advice for young musicians. That is to practice listening for for specific things in the mix when appropriate.

All too often I think the I can't hear this complaint is really I wasn't listening for it.

I sometimes see the opposite of not listening to the mix properly. An engineer who is constantly fiddling with things, making tiny, imperceptable changes to gain and eq settings. In most cases, if he stepped back from the mixer and listened to the overall sound, he would realise that it was fine.

I've been on the stage side (in the band) and FOH side of events (as junior help) where the soundguy has been instructed by "management" to make the headliner sound "THE BEST".

The end result is the other bands sound "not so good"!! Had I not experienced it I would not have thought it can happen. It is one angle to look at!

I've seen this many, many times over the past 3.5+ decades as a spectator. That's why I gave the big shout out to Mark Hartzell for allowing me the whole rig as a local opening act a few weeks back. It's no bs that I had people tell me we sounded better than the headliners that night. I know we were louder ;-)

Saw Daughtry and Goo Goo Dolls last night. As for Daughtry, his drummer's bass drum was rather prominent in the mix, the snare drum slightly buried, and no reason to use toms or cymbals as they could barely be heard at best. The drum mix for GGD was better, though the cymbals and toms were still a little too low in the mix.

These problems happen at paid events, too. I've heard/seen more than my fair share of the same problem that Scott mentions in his post....drums buried deep in the mix. Usually I can only hear/feel bass drum. No cymbals, no toms, very little snare. It's so common I figured it was a common mindset with sound engineers.

Egads! Are we experiencing a new era that is the opposite of "lead kick drum" dominating and bludgeoning the rest of the mix? Not that the pendulum should swing too far the other way, LOL.